Reaching that magic top rated seller status is one of the first tasks new eBay sellers need to go through. Some may argue that TRS is not that important and in some cases – yes, I have seen that non-TRS listings do rank well in search results BUT in the majority of cases, you’ll mostly see TRS listings at the top of eBay’s search results. Plus without TRS you can’t qualify for eBay Premium Service status, which is another added advantage.

Most people starting out on eBay will have personal accounts but as we all know – to qualify for TRS status, you need to have a Business account. And this causes some confusion as people are unsure about when exactly they need to upgrade to a business account…

This is exactly what Neil asked about in his recent email:

Hi Andrew,

I’m a stay at home dad of 2 and looking to build a 2nd income from eBay.

I’m in the middle of the learning curve in selling unwanted 2nd hand goods. My account is a personal one rated above standard with 100 + sales and 100% positive feedback.

Do I need to switch to a business account to get TRS status (as well as the other requirements of course)?

Just don’t forget that to qualify for TRS, you need 100 sales (to UK & IRL buyers) PLUS £1k in total sales volume. So if you haven’t reached £1k in sales, you’ll need to find a few more expensive items and sell them to reach that level.

Once that is done – in your eBay Seller Dashboard (Seller Hub), you’ll get a message saying that you’ll get your Top Rated Seller status on the next evaluation day BUT only if you have upgraded your eBay account to BUSINESS.

Let’s quickly re-cap how the evaluation system works on eBay:

Evaluation happens each month on the 20th (+/- one day).

It takes into account data ending with the last day of the previous month. So for example on 20th March it takes data for the period ending on 28th February.

The standard evaluation period is your last 12 months of trading.

Sellers who make at least 400 sales over the last 3 months will be switched to the 3 month evaluation period, which means – only the last 3 months of data will be taken into account.

So – each month, on the 20th, eBay will decide whether to give you that TRS status, taking into account all sales for the period ending on the last day of the previous month.

I hope that makes sense?

For example, if on 28th February you had 95 sales, even if you do make 5 more sales in the beginning of March, they WON’T be taken into account on the 20th March evaluation as these sales were made in March. But they will be taken into account on the next evaluation – on 20th April.

Now, the Business account status requirement – the problem is that eBay doesn’t clearly explain when you have to upgrade your account. But that’s why I’m here, right?

Basically, you only need to upgrade your account once you’ve reached the sales requirements. You can even upgrade just a few days before the evaluation kicks in and you’ll still get your TRS status.

But why would you want to hold off of upgrading?

Because as a personal account owner – i.e. private seller, you’re in a better position while working on those 100 sales worth £1k:

You can freely select your return policy as you wish;

You get 20 free listings each month (no listing insertion fee to pay).

So I would actually recommend staying with a personal account for the time you’re selling un-wanted, 2nd hand items purely to reach TRS status.

Obviously if you do start selling your “money/business” items from day one, you’ll probably want to upgrade to a Business account from day one as well, to make use of the advantages only available to Business accounts (like shop subscriptions, marketing tools etc.)

Lastly – don’t forget that upgrading to a Business account on eBay DOESN’T mean that you have to have an actual, registered business (like an Ltd. company) – this is just a business account in eBay terms and they won’t ask you for any business registration documents or anything like that.

To sum it up – stay with a personal account as you work on your TRS sales requirements and simply upgrade to a Business account before your next evaluation day.

Alright, that’s it for today. Another week, another Friday and another weekend ahead of us! I will definitely be going outside for some sporting activities! Remember, I started a weight loss challengeearlier this year and I can tell you that I’m already making good progress! Very soon I will be publishing a post about my first 3 months results, so stay tuned for that.

As always – if you have a question or two you want me to cover in the up-coming Reader’s Question blog posts, get in touch via my help desk here and I will personally reply to all messages within 24 hours, Monday to Friday!